Founder’s accountPathfinders for Hope
In his own words
How this started.
Nine years unsheltered. I am the Pathfinders for Hope founder, and this is how it started, and why I built what I built.
My name is Marco Cardenas, Pathfinders for Hope founder.
I am an Army veteran.
I am from the streets.
Across my life, I have been homeless for nine years.
Account 01 / 06
This is not research. This is memory.
In 2021 I had a cleaning business in San Antonio. A team under me. We did COVID cleanups — the buildings nobody else would walk into.
Then I caught COVID. So did most of my crew.
All of it, gone.
It took something else from me. My mental health went. I started using.
I lost my mind.
Diana was my girlfriend at the time. She went through every day of this with me.
We drove west.
We totaled both vehicles. After that it was the two of us on foot.
Every city had organizations that said they helped people on the street. I called all of them.
Not available.
Here’s another number.
You’re on the list.
Nobody ever called back.
Las Vegas. Four churches around one block. One to sleep. One to eat. One for rehab. You slept outside on the ground.
They fed us. They meant it.
We were in the same spot ninety days later.
By then I had stopped calling. Not because I gave up — because I had run it enough times to know the answer.
Account 02 / 06
Four organizations. Not one ever knew whether we made it out.
Then Oceanside. And in Oceanside I stopped being able to hold it.
I had a weapon on me and I had made the decision.
Then we heard San Diego had organizations that actually got people off the street. Real ones.
I pulled out my phone to get us a ride. Diana’s was already dead.
I opened the app. Typed the address. Never got to press the button.
The phone died in my hand.
Five cities. Four states. Every time the system said: not here — try someone else.
If you are where I was — call or text 988, or see our guide to homeless shelters in Vallejo.
Account 03 / 06
That was supposed to be the end of the story.
Twenty minutes later I noticed a car.
Third time, it stopped. She rolled down her window.
“Are you Marco?”
I said yes. Who out here knows my name?
“I’m here to pick you up.”
“I’m your Uber driver. You requested a ride.”
I looked her dead in the eye and told her that was not possible.
Did somebody pay for this?
Every red flag was up. I did not care. Diana and I got in.
I told a total stranger everything. How I got there. What was in my head. And that when she dropped me off, I was going to end my life.
She did not flinch and she did not let it go. She kept asking until I told her the truth.
“Give me the weapon.”
My first answer was no. Something in me said do it. I handed it over.
She never took us to an address, because I never gave her one. She drove us to a hotel and paid for the room out of her own pocket.
Then she asked, do you know Jesus? I said yes.
“He does not want you to end your life. He has big plans for you. The Holy Spirit is telling me right now.”
“Tomorrow I want to take you to church. Will you come?”
I did not hesitate.
Account 04 / 06
I called agencies in five cities and not one ever found me. A stranger circled the block three times until she did.
She did not hand me a number.
She did not put me on a list.
She stayed in it until we were safe.
That is the difference between a referral and a handoff.
The next morning we were at the Rock Church in Point Loma. The pastor told our story from the front of the room.
We got stuck in Old Town San Diego for a year. That is where it changed.
Then it landed. It was not that nobody cared. The churches cared. The agencies cared.
Nobody was responsible for me.
Nobody is coming.
If that is true — then who is going to help me?
The answer was me.
Six months of Dr. Jordan Peterson and Dr. Gabor Maté, every single day.
I taught myself life skills.
I taught myself to write a resume.
I went out and got a job and worked it until I had enough to get off the street.
I should not have had to be the answer. But I was the only one still tracking my case.
In 2023 I called my mother and asked to stay while I got on my feet. Amtrak to Fairfield. Then Vallejo, for a window cleaning job.
I met the people who are still my friends today. I asked them why they were out here.
They read my own life back to me.
That is when I knew it was not me.It was the machine.
June 2024. Wilson Park. I was visiting friends when the sweep came through.
Account 05 / 06
I had seen enough.
That day gave me a purpose.
I stopped using.
Then I went and got the proof — because my story is one man, and one man is an anecdote.
In 2025 I surveyed 228 unsheltered men in Vallejo.
Not one man out of 228said the system worked.
Solano County is not short on programs. They are there. They are funded. The people inside them are trying. The failure is not effort and it is not funding.
People fall outbetween them.
That is the same gap I fell through in six cities.
I brought it to the Housing and Community Development Commission. Commissioner Bre Jackson was seated as Chair. She asked to hear more. She has been building this with me ever since, and she now chairs our board.
What I built is calledOperation Iron Gate.
People do not fall out of the system by accident. They fall out at the handoff — and nobody ever finds out.
No dead ends. No handoff without a confirmed receipt. Nobody handed a number and forgotten. That is what a no-dead-end referral system means, and it is the whole design.
Nobody was tracking me.We track everybody.
Account 06 / 06
That is the part we are fixing.